That Youth arose, and breathlessly did look
On her and me, as for some speechless boon :
I smiled, and both their hands in mine I took,
And felt a soft delight from what their spirits shook.
"That night we anchored in a woody bay,
And sleep no more around us dare to hover
Than, when all doubt and fear has past away,
It shades the couch of some unresting lover,
Whose heart is now at rest; thus night past over
In mutual joy:-around, a forest grew
Of poplars and dark oaks, whose shade did cover
The waning stars prankt in the waters blue,
And trembled in the wind which from the morning flew
" The joyous mariners, and each free maiden,
Now brought from the deep forest many a bough,
With woodland spoil most innocently laden;
Soon wreathes of budding foliage seemed to flow
Over the mast and sails; the stern and prow
Were canopied with blooming boughs, the while
On the slant sun's path o'er the waves we go
Rejoicing, like the dwellers of an isle
Doomed to pursue those waves that cannot
"The many ships, spotting the dark blue deep
With snowy sails, fled fast as ours came nigh,
In fear and wonder, and on every steep
Thousands did gaze: they heard the startling cry,
Like earth's own voice lifted unconquerably
To all her children, the unbounded mirth,
The glorious joy of thy name-Liberty!
They heard!-As o'er the mountains of the earth
From peak to peak leap on the beams of morning's
birth.
"So from that cry, over the boundless hills,
Sudden was caught one universal sound,
Like a volcano's voice, whose thunder fills
Remotest skies,-such glorious madness found
A path thro' human hearts with stream which drowned
its struggling fears and cares, dark custom's brood;
They knew not whence it came, but felt around
A wide contagion poured-they called aloud
On Liberty-that name lived on the sunny flood.
"We reached the port-alas! from many spirits
The wisdom which has waked that cry was fled,
Like the brief glory which dark Heaven inherits
From the false dawn, which fades ere it is spread,
Upon the night's devouring darkness shed:
Yet soon bright day will burst-even like a chasm
Of fire to burn the shrouds, outworn and dead,
Which wrap the world; a wide enthusiasm,
To cleanse the fevered world as with an earthquake's spasm;
"I walked thro' the great City then, but free
From shame or fear. Those toil-worn Mariners
And happy Maidens did encompass me ;
And, like a subterranean wind that stirs
Some forest among caves, the hopes and fears
From every human soul, a murmur strange
Made as I past: and many wept with tears
Of joy and awe, and winged thoughts did range,
And half-extinguished words, which prophesied of
change.
"For, with strong speech I tore the veil that hid
Nature, and Truth, and Liberty, and Love,-
As one who from some mountain's pyramid
Points to the unrisen sun -The shades approve
His truth, and flee from every stream and grove.
Thus gentle thoughts did many a bosom fill-
Wisdom the mail of tried affections wove
For many a heart, and tameless scorn of ill
Thrice steep'd in molten steel the unconquerable will.
Some said I was a maniac wild and lost:
Some, that I scarce had risen from the grave,
The Prophet's virgin bride, a heavenly ghost:-
Some said, I was a fiend from my weird cave,
Who had stolen human shape, and o'er the wave,
The forest, and the mountain, came ;--some said
I was the child of God, sent down to save
Women from bonds and death, and on my head
The burthen of their sins would frightfully be laid.
"But soon my human words found sympathy
In human hearts; the purest and the best,
As friend with friend made common cause with me,
And they were few, but resolute; the rest,
Ere yet success the enterprize had blest,
[slumber Leagued with me in their hearts:-their meals, their Their hourly occupations, were possest
By hopes which I had arm'd to overnumber
Inose nosis of meaner cares, which life's strong wings encumber.
"But chiefly women, whom my voice did waken
From their cold careless, willing slavery,
Sought me one truth their dreary prison has shaken,-
They looked around, and lo! they became free!
Their many tyrants sitting desolately
In slave-deserted halls, could none restrain;
For wrath's red fire had withered in the eye,
Whose lightning once was death-nor fear, nor gain, Could tempt one captive now to lock another's chain.
"Those, who were sent to bind me, wept, and felt
Their minds outsoar the bonds which clasped them
round,
Even as a waxen shape may waste and melt
In the white furnace; and a visioned swound,
A pause of hope and awe, the City bound,
Which, like the silence of a tempest's birth,
When in its awful shadow it has wound
The sun, the wind, the ocean, and the earth,
Hung terrible, ere yet the lightnings have leapt forth.
"Like clouds inwoven in the silent sky,
By winds from distant regions meeting the
In the high name of truth and liberty,
Around the City millions gathered were,
By hopes which sprang from many a hidden air;
Words, which the lore of truth in hues of grace
Arrayed, thine own wild songs which in the air
Like homeless odours floated, and the name [flame.
Of thee, and many a tongue which thou hadst dipped in
"The Tyrant knew his power was gone, but Fear,
The nurse of Vengeance, bade him wait the event-
That perfidy and custom, gold and prayer,
And whatsoe'er when force is impotent,
To fraud the sceptre of the world has lent,
Might, as he judged, confirm his failing sway.
Therefore throughout the streets the Priests he sent
To curse the rebels.-To their gods did they
For Earthquake, Plague, and Want, kneel in the public way.
"And grave and heary men were bribed to tell
From seats where law is made the slave of wrong,
How glorious Athens in her splendour fell,
Because her sons were free,-and that among
Mankind the many to the few belong
By Heaven, and Nature, and Necessity.
They said, that age was truth, and that the young
Marred with wild hopes the peace of slavery,
With which old times and men had quelled the vain and free.
"And with the falsehood of their poisonous lips
They breathed on the enduring memory
Of sages and of bards a brief eclipse:
There was one teacher, whom necessity
Had armed with strength and wrong against mankind, His slave and his avenger aye to be;
That we were weak and sinful, frail and blind,
And that the will of one was peace, and we
Should seek for nought on earth but toii and misery.
For thus we might avoid the hell hereafter.'
So spake the hypocrites, who cursed and lied;
Alas, their sway was past, and tears and laughter
Clung to their hoary hair, withering the pride
Which in their hollow hearts dared still abide;
And yet obscener slaves with smoother brow,
And sneers on their strait lips, thin, blue, and wide,
Said, that the rule of men was over now,
And hence the subject world to woman's will must bow
"And gold was scattered thro' the streets, and wine
Flowed at a hundred feasts within the wall,
In vain! The steady towers in Heaven did shine
As they were wont, nor at the priestly call
Left Plague her banquet in the Ethiop's hall,
Nor Famine from the rich man's portal came,
Where at her ease she ever prays on all
Who throng to kneel for food: nor fear, nor shame,
Nor faith, nor discord, dimmed hope's newly-kindled
flame.
"For gold was as a god, whose faith began
To fade, so that its worshippers were few;
And Faith itself, which in the heart of man
Gives shape, voice, name, to spectral Terror, knew
Its downfall, as the altars lonelier grew,
Till the Priests stood alone within the fane;
The shafts of falsehood unpolluting flew,
And the cold sneers of calumny were vain,
The union of the free with discord's brand to stain.
"The rest thou knowest.-Lo! we two are here-
We have survived a ruin wide and deep-
Strange thoughts are mine.-I cannot grieve nor fear,
Sitting with thee upon this lonely steep
I smile, tho' human love should make me weep.
We have survived a joy that knows no sorrow,
And I do feel a mighty calmness creep
Over my heart, which can no longer borrow
Its hues from chance or change, dark children of to-mor
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